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I've gotten Sickels' self published book every year (I believe this is year 4?) and have enjoyed it. I also give it as a gift to my brother, father, and best friend who have birthdays in late January/February.

I also get them the BA book and use that as a reference throughout the year and in future years. That's awesome.

There was also a book put out every year by John Benson called Future Stars that I stopped buying last year (2004 was the last year I bought it, 2005 was the first year I didn't) that was functional, but I didn't like as much as Sickels or BA. I tried to find it on Amazon to link but couldn't find an 05 or 06 edition.

I've never gotten anything from Shandler - not like I'm enemies with him, I just never purchased anything. I also play some serious fantasy baseball. Any thoughts on whether that would be a good purchase for a prospect nut/fantasy baseball player would be appreciated.

I have Jamey Newberg's 2006 Newberg Report. It's not just a prospect book, but has a lot of good prospect info on the Rangers. No reason to buy it if you don't like the Rangers, but if you do, here's a link

Not great scouting on most of the players, but for pitchers he generally tells you how hard they throw, what offspeed/breaking pitches they throw, if the pitches are good or not.

For hitters he breaks down the numbers by month and talks about the players in general terms, giving a background of them, and some scouting on the hitters.

BPros covers a lot of players who aren't covered very well in other places. It's not a standalone book, it's not *the* one I'd buy on a limited budget (that would be Sickels), and you should be cautious about relying solely on their recommendations. But it's a very good complement to the other books.

I've never gotten anything from Shandler - not like I'm enemies with him, I just never purchased anything. I also play some serious fantasy baseball. Any thoughts on whether that would be a good purchase for a prospect nut/fantasy baseball player would be appreciated.

I don't want this to turn into a fantasy discussion, but...

If I were a fantasy player, Shandler's book would be the first one that I would buy. I don't know that he's that far ahead of the field any more, however.

I have Jamey Newberg's 2006 Newberg Report. It's not just a prospect book, but has a lot of good prospect info on the Rangers.

If every major league team had someone like Jamey Newberg writing about them, we wouldn't need any other prospect books.

FWIW, BA's Prospect Handbook has arrived, a full month earlier than we have gotten it done previously, and is available at the link Mike graciously provided above. Not because of Mike, but one of his beloved Mudcats, Jeremy Hermida, is on the cover in full Mudcats regalia.

I used to buy Benson's Future Stars, but I don't think he issued one last year and don't see any indication that he will this year. Too bad, there were some interesting tidbits in there (he was the only one pointing out how far ahead of the curve Jorge Cantu was for his age group, for instance).

Any details on the grip? I saw Charlie warming up in Bowie midseason. He was throwing a knuckler with just one finger on the ball. (personally, I've always used 2).

Is that the new grip or the old one?

The common argument against this "new grip" that consumed SoSH for several days was that Zink's new grip and his 20 or so IP of success, were simply coincedences. This was supported by the fact that he was awful in the AFL. I gave up on him a long time ago. Nice kid though.

Feb. 21 is technically the release date for the book; that's the release date from Simon & Schuster, and that's where Amazon gets its copies from. In other words, you get it almost a month sooner if you order it from us.

Mini-review: All three prospect books (BA, Sickels, and McKamey) are worthwhile buys.

Sickels' book is my least favorite of the three - while I generally trust overall assessment of prospects, I don't feel like I learn very much from him... we already agree (by and large) on philosophy and there's not much in the text that you couldn't figure out by looking at a guy's stat line and demographics. In his favor, it's probably the most accessible of the three texts. Also, his blog (minorleagueball.com) is a nice resource.

BA's book is the standard to which the others should be compared. It covers more players better than anyone else and is probably the foundation for a majority of the amateur prospect rankings you'll find online. Looking for pitfalls: It has multiple contributors, some of whom do a better job (IMO) than others - also, I've wondered before if a contributor or two may have been "captured" by the team they're covering. BA's focus on ceiling is off-putting to some (though, not to me) and their estimates of pitcher velocity are a little faster than you'll find elsewhere.

McKamey's book was a pleasant surprise. Though not much thicker than a magazine and a tad overpriced, it contains a surprising amount of info (I particularly liked the pitch listing/evaluation/MPH data). More comments and a more detailed rating system would be good next steps. The player selection was a little idiosyncratic as well.

I've never been a Sickels supporter - he has very few contacts within the game and rarely travels outside the midwest. Plus, his "scouting reports" are essentially taken from BA. He's a terrific writer, however, with nice musings. If you're solely a stats guy, then Sickels' book is for you.

McKamey's book is pretty solid. I like him because he's been to MLB scout school and knows what to look for. He's not as stats-driven as Shandler's people tend to be and he is a Cardinals advisor. He has numerous contacts within the Cardinals organization as well as front offices across baseball. That is a HUGE advantage over someone like Sickels.

I don't mean to demean Sickels, but I don't put much credence in his rankings/grades. I consider him to be slightly above the general prospect blogdom who essentially take from BA, add some "statistical analysis" and rearrange the rankings.

BA is the standard and McKamey's book is the better complement than Sickels'.

I don't need any more stats. I can get them from BA's website and have full MLE's a week after the minor league season ends. Derek adds some absolutely wonderful scouting information, and in a standardized format that BA doesn't have. He tells me something I didn't already know.

In addition to the pitcher stuff, there's time to first for batters. Finally, an objective way to measure player speed. Its not available for all players, probably just the ones Derek was able to get a stopwatch on.

I thought it was interesting to see that almost all of his 2B prospects have average or below speed. Howie Kendrick at 4.3, Dustin Pedroia at 4.6 (same speed I got him at a game in Bowie), Kinsler 4.4